Denmark bans Kurdish TV station and fines it £1.2m

A Kurdish TV station based in Denmark has appealed to the country's supreme court after a lower court revoked its licence and ordered it to pay a fine of £1.2m.

Roj TV, in company with its parent company Mesopotamia Broadcasting, was convicted on 3 July of promoting terrorism by supporting the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The station's lawyer, Bjørn Elmquist, has requested that the withdrawal of the broadcast licence is delayed until the appeal is complete.

Roj TV's board, which has pledged to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights, issued a press release saying:

"Kurds have been denied free speech in many countries and now also in Denmark. It is unavoidable that Kurds will see the verdict as demonstrating that [the Danish state] doesn't want to discuss the actual factual situation and that political and other motivations were instead at play."

The Danish court decision has been condemned by Kurdish organisations who regard the move as evidence of cooperation between the authorities in Denmark and Turkey, which has long pressured to have the Kurdish news channels closed down.

The Turkish ambassador to Denmark explicitly called on the Danish authorities to shut down Roj TV. And Wikileaks cables point to political bargaining between the two countries.

The decision comes a delicate time when a peace process between Turkey and the Kurds is continuing and a ceasefire remains in place.

A petition to save Roj TV has been launched. Among the first signatories are Noam Chomsky and John Berger.